I smelled almonds at first. From the bottle and wet on, it smells like Amaretto. Reminds me of almond tea with some cinnamon and honey. Definitely a cold weather scent (she says the day after midsummer ).

As it dries it gets spicier. My co-worker walked in and said "It smells like a bakery. You smell like my favortie cinnamon, clove and almond coffee cake." I love it. Sweet and spicy and interesting.

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In the bottle: Cherry/almondy soda. Getting a little afraid...this smells WAY too sweet...

Wet on my skin: Whoa...I am blessed with some seriously miraculous body chemistry. All of the oils, even if they smell a bit wonky in the bottle, all end up smelling luscious on me. This is no exception. The sickening sweetness goes away immidiately and leaves a sexy-as-hell rose/subtle black cherry spiciness on me. This is a definite night time scent, unless it's one of those "I'm a sexy bitch" days. This really fits the site description. Meeeooow.

Dry: This has crazy staying power. It still smells like rose, very, very subtle black cherry and luscious Snake Oil-esque spiciness. Ugh.

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First Impression: Sweet potent elixir, my favorite kind. A bit of cinnamon, a bit of almond and a bit of cherry. Yes, I can understand the Coke references or even Cherry Coke.

Second Impression: Very similar to Eclipse and Inferno, but with a deeper floral touch underneath. This one keep getting deeper and warmer the longer it wears.

Final Analysis: I'm thrilled I finally got to sample the Lab's namesake scent. It certainly does justice. It's deep, spicy-sweet, warming and sexy. This one has great throw. Careful application is warranted for summer but in cool months a good slather would keep me feeling warm and cozy. Wonderfully made.

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At first sniff, I get strong but nice maraschino cherries....then it softens into something sweet and wonderful......until.....I got dressed.

For some bizarre reason, Black Phoenix clashed with the normal clean clothes smell of my just washed shirt, and turned into.....

NAIL POLISH REMOVER!

I totally blame the laundry soap, but now I have a killer headache. Of course, I can remember the wonderfulness that Black Phoenix really is when I sniff my untainted by laundry soap wrists, but the rest? Oh well. It'll just have to be a skin only scent.

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My chemistry killed this one. I'm so sad because I loved the smell of it in the vial (I love that almond smell). Smelled good on me for about 30 seconds and then something funky happened and it started smelling dusty, sharp and spikey...then the headache and turning stomach began. Had to was this one off.

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In the bottle it is very almond and cherry very sticky sweet. I can see th Cherry Coke think in he bottle.

On me this one likes changing from sitcky sweet candy to light floral. It lasts a long time almost 10 hours (I woke up early this morning). It settles down to a sweet floral/candy. Loke some flowers fell into a glass of cherry coke. I really like this one and will so use up the ipm I got. I ended up falling a sleep and too a nap earier and wearing it while sleeping gave me "odd" dreams. And to think this was a extra from Beth.

So I'll I have to say is Beth Thank you so muck I love this one.

Edited August 15, 2004 by Emu Nymph

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Cherry coke (in the bottle)! When drying, I was slightly reminded of Darkness and I thought it was going to go the full-blown musky smoke route. However, it still retained the cherry scent, with the musky smoke swirling in the background. Now, a few hours later, it smells like chlorine, but not in a bad way, because I'm reminded of being on the swim team when I was young.

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Black Phoenix: from Diabolus the notes wasn't mentioned in this oil at all, going on was some what overwhelming to me, I could smell a spiced incense scent during the wet process.

drydown was lovely it became light spiced incense with amber a bit of powder, the incense was leading the the class, I'm not a incense girl I enjoyed this one , this is be fitting of it's name. I want a bigger bottle.

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When I first put Black Phoenix on, I get that cherry almond smell like a lot of other people get. Then it smells like Amaretto for a while. When it dries down on me, it starts smelling vaguely like men's cologne, so I think it's too masculine (whatever that means) with my body chemistry. Too bad, I like the initial scent. I think it might be sexy on a guy, and someone recommended using it in the bath. I also would like it as a car scent, because I love it out of the imp.

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Black Phoenix has just reinforced how hugely disappointed I can be with my skin. First on, there was a definite hit of almonds, which dried into a lovely Cherry Coke type smell. However, my skin just took it and warped it and it ended up smelling just like my Auntie Trudy. Now I love my Auntie Trudy very much, but I’m 33 and she’s over 70 - old lady perfume is not a smell I was aiming for. to my skin and into the swap pile with Black Phoenix.

On me: Cherries and almond. From the reviews I keep hoping for it to get a little smokier or at least "darken" but while the scent seems to be eaten up instantly by my skin, it isn't changing. It only gets fainter as time goes on. Odd. Darn, I really wanted to like this, but the scent's a bit too bright for me.

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Almonds in the vial, lots and lots of them. For the first ten minutes this smelled like Hecate does on me, smokey almonds and a hint of cinnamon. It morphed into something very earthy and spicey, dark and powerful and firey which was lovely. Sadly this morphed back to a sickly marichino cherry and almond on me. Truely saddening as phoenixes are my calling card, so to speak, and I really wanted to adore this one.

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When I first put this on, it smells like evil almonds. After it dries, it smells like evil dark-colored hard candy and evil french milled soap. This isn't my type of scent at all, as it isn't sweet or spicy or floral or feminine in any way. This is one of the oddest perfume blends I've never smelled.

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Black Phoenix is making me laugh--it seems to be playing with me, like Beth is grinning and waving from California. I got *everything* others have mentioned--in the vial, cherry Coke, right down to the "fizz". On me, a bright burst of cherry-almond like my favorite shampoo from Back to Basics. Then amaretto and incense. I love all stages of it, but find it hilarious that it keeps teasing me and changing. A mischievious blend, now light now dark, now girly now boyish, now fruity now musky.

This could have been Imp if there was not already a blend of that name. Great stuff. Now I feel frolicksome!

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When I first put this on, I could smell the Cherry Coke type scent very strongly. And I loved it! I love cherries, so of course I think they smell fabulous. But it also has a sweet, deep scent as well, something that smells very...exciting.

Two minutes later, it turned to baby powder on me. This has amber in it, and if I wear anything with amber, it will overwhelm with powder any of the other notes. I'm very sad.

If you don't have a problem with amber or any of the other notes, this really is awesome. I envy you, you Black Phoenix wearing chicas!

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This goes on in a flaming burst of cherry and almond... or perhaps I should say, CHERRY! and ALMOND! Seems much more sweet than dark to me, and unfortunately I'm not that fond of almonds. I think I should also have gone lighter on the application, as R. was able to smell it, fresh, from halfway across the house. The drydown analysis was hindered by having to be in and out a lot today -- I think most of it must have ended up on my coat-sleeves. But frankly, I wasn't impressed; while not an awful scent, it just didn't grab me. Since there seem to be a lot of people who really adore it, I think this is a candidate for the swap pile.